SECOND READING. (Hansard, 22 March 1872)

§ LORD O'HAGAN

, in moving that the Bill be now read the second time, said, that the measure if not a very ambitious one, was one of great importance, inasmuch as its object was the constitution of a good bankruptcy code for Ireland. In Ireland bankruptcies had been worked since 1857 under an Act passed in that year. It had been carried out efficiently under very able Judges, and had given substantial satisfaction. But the time had arrived when Ireland must necessarily advance in the direction of the changes which had been effected with such good results by English legislation on the subject. The Bill had three objects in view. One was to abolish the distinction now made between traders and non-traders; the second was to abolish the distinction between insolvency and bankruptcy; and the third—which it was proposed to carry into effect by means of the Debtors' Bill which was auxiliary to this—was to abolish imprisonment for debt, and at the same time to make more stringent and effectual the provisions of the law for the punishment of fraudulent debtors. He had endeavoured to adopt everything that experience had shown to be really useful in English legislation, but to reject certain portions that would be impolitic and injurious for Ireland. He had retained, therefore, those provisions of the Irish Act which by experience had been found practically operative for the protection of the honest trader and the punishment of the fraudulent debtor, and at the same time he had taken from the English Acts those provisions which had been found to work successfully in this country, and which might be applied to Ireland without incurring enormous expenditure by bringing into operation agencies much too large for the business to be done in Ireland. The Act of 1857 provided for the regulation of bankruptcy, the regulation of the Insolvent Court, and contained arrangement clauses whereby bankruptcy could be avoided. In this Bill the law with reference to traders and non-traders in England and Ireland would be assimilated. The provisions of the English law for obtaining a certificate or an order of discharge would be applied to Ireland. No such certificate would be granted unless the estate of the bankrupt should have paid 10s. in the pound, or unless in the opinion of the Court the 485 Bankruptcy had arisen from circumstances for which the bankrupt was not justly responsible, and the Court was empowered to suspend or altogether withhold the certificate in the following cases:—where a prosecution had been commenced against the bankrupt for fraudulent dealing, and where the Court were of opinion that he had not made a full disclosure of his affairs. This certificate would release the bankrupt from all debts except those which he might have incurred by fraud or breach of trust, or debts due to the Crown. As to the arrangement clauses, they continued them in full operation and effect, because they had been found of the greatest possible advantage in Ireland. There was another part of the Bill which defined the general powers of its Court. It gave complete and efficient action to the Court in all matters falling within its jurisdiction. It was not subject to restraint in the execution of its powers by any other Court; and if any question of fact arose, instead of having to send it for trial to some other Court, the Court of Bankruptcy was empowered to try the issue with or without a jury in the same manner as if it were the trial of an issue in one of the superior Courts of Common Law. It appeared to them that the measure was one worthy of the favourable consideration of their Lordships, because it was one that he believed would be of the greatest possible advantage to the mercantile community in Ireland. As a supplement to this Bill there was also another one for the abolition of imprisonment for debt in Ireland—a system which had been for the last three or four years in operation in Ireland. They provided also for the mode in which a debtor might make himself a bankrupt, and be discharged from his debts. The opinion of the mercantile community and the general opinion of the country had pronounced in favour of these changes being for the public advantage.